Did Hamid Mir Play
Role In Khalid Khawaja’s Murder?
Did
Hamid Mir Play Role In Khalid Khawaja’s Murder?
Pakistani TV anchor and senior journalist Hamid Mir seems to have bitten off
more than he can chew with the release of his recorded conversation with a
close aide of Hakimullah Mehsud.
The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence are said to be investigating what
role Hamid Mir has played in the assasination of Retd Squadron Leader Khalid
Khawaja, who was kidnapped by a shadowy outfit calling itself the ‘Asian
Tigers’, part of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP).
The shocking audiotape of a conversation between Hamid Mir – one of the
country’s top TV anchors – and a man purportedly linked to the
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, has revealed that negative information that Mir
passed on to the Taliban could have led to the execution of Khalid Khawaja, the
retired Air Force official allegedly killed by a group calling themselves the
‘Asian Tigers’.
The tape – which has Mir divulging dirt on Khawaja, ostensibly to someone who
is going to cross examine him – was first posted by the Let Us Build Pakistan
blog, and picked up by other online publications. It is still unclear who made
the tape, with online speculation suggesting that it could be the militants
themselves, or even intelligence agencies who released the recording.
Whatever the source may be, it is clear that one of the voices on the tape is
Mir’s, a fact corroborated by his allusions to events such as his sacking from
the daily Ausaf. In the tape, the person on the other end asks Mir for
information on Khalid Khawaja. The content of the conversation suggests that
this call was made before Khawaja’s execution earlier this month. Mir goes on
to detail what he knows about Khawaja’s background, linking him to the CIA, an
international network of Qadianis and an American named Mansur Ejaz, who, Mir
claims, even offered to solve the Kashmir issue.
At one point, the voice on the other end claims to have abducted Khawaja. Here,
Mir volunteers further information linking Khawaja to the Lal Masjid operation,
saying that Khawaja and his wife were the ones responsible for the death of
Ghazi Rasheed and the humiliating capture of Maulana Abdul Aziz and his family.
Mir then urges the man to cross-examine Khawaja about his relationship with
Mansur Ejaz, Qadianis and a CIA agent named William Casey.
Mir also mentions Javed Paracha – the Kohat-based PML-N lawmaker who offered to
mediate Khawaja’s release. Towards the end of the tape, the voice on the other
end says that he will relay the information (that Mir has given) to Hakeemullah
Mehsud.
Below is the transcript (English Translation) of the entire conversation:
Hamid Mir: Many bombings are being carried out.
Unidentified man: Let’s see. There will be more of them. There are some in the
pipeline. What do they (government) say about the operation in Orakzai? Will
they stop it or not?
HM: No, they say it would not be stopped, rather they say they will also start
an operation in North Waziristan and 40,000 troops will leave in a couple of
days.
UM: In North Waziristan?
HM: Yes.
UM: Do you have any report on Khalid Khawaja etc.
HM: They say Khalid Khawaja Saab is in custody of one Azam Afridi in Darrakhel.
UM: Yes, yes Tariq Afridi (correcting HM).
HM: They are in Tariq Afridi’s custody.
UM: OK.
HM: Yes.
UM: So, are they men of the government or ISI?
HM: Who?
UM: These, Khalid Khawaja and Colonel Imam.
HM: Khalid Khawaja, according to my opinion, is not an ISI man, rather he is a
CIA agent, an American CIA agent and he has links with the Taliban leadership.
UM: Yes, he met with Hakimullah and others when he came here last time.
HM: I personally know that Khalid Khawaja has links not only with CIA but he is
also a front man of Mansoor Ijaz who belongs to a very big international
network of Qadiyanis. Once he came to me along with Mansoor, who had a
briefcase with him, and Khalid Saab told me that Mansoor is a key
representative of the US government, so arrange his meeting with Syed
Salahuddin, who is a mujahideen leader, and he along with him would resolve the
Kashmir issue.
UM: All right.
HM: But I asked him what charm or magic lamp does he posses for the resolution
of the Kashmir dispute. He said he had links with the Indian government and
(Atal Bihari) Vajpayee Jee, which surprised me. I didn’t arrange the meeting,
but I asked Mr Salahuddin who said Khalid Khawaja is sending messages that you
should directly talk to India and the US on the issue and exclude Pakistan from
it.
UM: All right, all right.
HM: After that, Mansoor Ijaz also asked me: Are you with us or not? I said, “I
am not with you.” Then he conspired against me and got me sacked from the Daily
Ausaf when I was its editor. So, I think Khalid Khawaja not only has links with
the CIA but he is also an agent of the Qadiyanis, and I am very sad that he
used to go to the Tribal Areas and meet leaders there.
UM: But now, I think, the Taliban have caught him and have demanded $10 million
for the journalist.
HM: Do you know what part his (Khalid Khawaja’s) wife played in Lal Masjid?
UM: No, but it was something negative.
HM: It was that Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi Saab – may Allah bless him with a
place in heavens. What he told me in his last days was, do you know that he did
not completely agree with Maulana Aziz.
UM: Yes, yes.
HM: Mr Abdul Rashid Ghazi wanted to save the students inside the mosque and for
that he showed flexibility and said, “I am ready to surrender on the condition
that those who are with me will not be arrested and will be released.” But
Khalid Khawaja’s wife was pressurised so much by Ume Hassaan that Maulana Abdul
Aziz, without asking his brother, came out in a burqa, and Khalid Khawaja was
involved in it (call disconnected).
UM: Assalam-o-Alaikum!
HM: Yes,
UM: The call got disconnected.
HM: Ok.
UM: So, what were you saying about his wife?
HM: Yes, I was telling you that his wife pressurised him so much that Ghazi
Saab said, “She says we have to fight, just fight for martyrdom.” After that Mr
Khalid Khawaja came out of the mosque and his wife also fled, Khalid Khawaja’s
wife.
UM: Yes, we heard that she had fled after that.
HM: Yes, she ran away and then Maulana Abdul Aziz also came out in the burqa.
UM: I think, he insisted for that.
HM: Yes, he had done all this. After that Maulana Abdul Aziz was arrested and
Mr Abdul Rashid Ghazi telephoned me and said, “Now, I don’t have any option. Now,
my family and ulema have been defamed as my brother was arrested in a burqa and
presented on Pakistan Television. This is a large stain which can only be
removed with my blood.” So, he lived up to his words and sacrificed. So, Khalid
Khawaja and his wife, anyone may know or not, they will have to answer before
Allah Almighty.
UM: He, recently, came here and met my companions. He was saying, “You can work
in Pakistan as we say, if you want to. I can arrange your ‘setting’ with an
admiral in Mianwali. So, you should not burn US containers in Pakistan, you can
rob them and sell them to a person recommended by us.” He was saying, “We would
provide you everything for carrying out activities in Pakistan.”
HM: Do whatever you want to with the containers, burn them or rob them, I have
nothing to do with it. But ask him what relationship he has with Mansoor Ijaz
and William Casey? William Casey was the chief of CIA.
UM: Right, right.
HM: He (Khawaja) himself has confessed in front me that he had links with William
Casey. Ok! Leave William, ask him about the Qadiyanis, because I personally
believe that Qadiyanis are worse than infidels, what kind of links does he have
with Qadiyanis? What relationship does he have with Mansoor Ijaz? Why does he
use his money? Why does he go everywhere with him when he comes to Pakistan?
Why does he bring him to the mujahideen?
UM: Yes, he has a son in al Qaeda.
HM: Yes, his son would also be a spy like him.
UM: Yes, I talked to the shaikhs about him. They said they were keeping him on
the sidelines.
HM: His biggest betrayal to me was that there was a mujahid, Abdul Rehman Al
Canady.
UM: Yes, there was one Canady.
HM: He was martyred in North Waziristan. He came to me with Canady’s wife and a
daughter, saying Canady’s son, Karim, is at Rawalpindi’s CMH and is injured and
the army had arrested him. He asked me to arrange a meeting between the injured
and his mother. I said this is very difficult for me and I can’t do this
because already they are all against me. But, he said all that you need to do
is to arrange a meeting between a mother and her son. So, I arranged it with a
lot of difficulties and sent the woman to Rawalpindi CMH, but when she reached
there she took a camera out of her burqa and asked her son to record a message
that he is innocent, has no links with anyone and has been kept here illegally.
She was arrested there because a nurse saw her and seized the camera from her.
But I was held responsible for all of it as they told me that I had sent this
woman. It was revealed after her arrest that the woman had a Canadian passport
and had visited Canada two months ago. After that I faced a lot of
difficulties. The Canadian government released the woman and her daughter and
then she went back to Canada. In Toronto, she held a press conference and
admitted that she worked for the CIA. Now Khalid Khawaja has a long beard and
his wife wears a full veil so people like us, who are involved in worldly
affairs and have committed sins, believe that if we will help them, we might be
forgotten for our sins. When these kinds of people betray us, we lose
confidence on the religion itself.
UM: Absolutely, neither we are wrong nor is the army, but people like him have
created the difficulties.
HM: However, if he is somewhere, ask him at least that you used the name of
Abdul Rehman Canady, you worked with Mansoor Ijaz, you have worked William
Casey. And there is one Javaid Ibrahim Piracha, who has a very big seminary in
Kohat.
UM: Yes, yes.
HM: You all know the services of Piracha Saab. So, he fraudulently invited
Piracha Saab in Islamabad and told him he wanted to arrange his meeting with a
prominent personality. He took him to the US deputy foreign minister at Serena
Hotel and said, “He is Mr Piracha and he can arrange your talks with the al
Qaeda and Taliban.” Piracha Saab is a well-educated person. I observed that he
was betrayed and came out of the room and escaped from there. Then he called me
and said, “You were right about him (Khalid Khawaja).”
UM: Right, right. He went to him last time.
HM: Yes, Piracha Saab told me about that. He said, “He came to me and Col Imam
was also here and told Col Imam that don’t go anywhere with this guy.” He
(Piracha) said, “What can I do if he comes here and I can’t force him out of my
house, but you don’t go anywhere with him.” Mr Piracha said Col Imam didn’t
want to go with Khalid Khawaja, but he forced him to go with him.
UM: Right, maybe to use as human shield. But Shah Abdul Aziz, that MNA of Kirk,
is supporting him a lot. He was meeting everyone here and asking for his
release.
HM: He would have fooled Shah Abdul Aziz.
UM: Yes, he was asking people to release him and said you may keep the
journalist, whose ransom will be paid to you by him.
HM: Ok! His release depends on them who have kept him, but convey them these
three questions that what is your link with Mansoor Ijaz, whose father fled
with the atomic secrets of Pakistan. Mansoor Ijaz’s father was an atomic
scientist and he fled to the US with the atomic secrets of Pakistan. Once he (Ijaz)
offered Benazir Bhutto a quid pro quo deal in 1995 that all the debts of the
country will be forgiven, if she recognised Israel. That means he was also an
agent of Israel.
UM: Yes, he used to ask my companions to work in Pakistan “as we say”. Actually,
the killings of brigadiers in Rawalpindi might have been arranged by him, I
think.
HM: It might be possible, but I have been watching this guy for the last 13 or
14 years and he is a suspected man.
UM: OK. Inshallah, I will meet Hakimullah in two or three days and talk to him
about all this.
HM: All right
UM: Thank you so much.
HM: Assalam-o-Alaikum!
UM: Assalam-o-Alaikum!
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